Panel: Travel and drinks writer Clifford Roberts, radio broadcaster and Susan Stanleys brand ambassador Guy McDonald, wine influencer Elvina Fortuin (@throughmywinegl), former Country Life wine writer Greg Landman, CHEERS magazine’s Dee Griffin and Fiona McDonald.

If it lays claim to coffee or chocolate on the label, it needs to be boldly so was the general consensus after tasting a small representative sample of the category of coffee pinotage.

“It needs to be ramped up – I was expecting more,” Elvina Fortuin pronounced after having tasted through the line-up of wines. “Yeah, agreed,” said both Clifford Roberts and Guy McDonald. She posed the question of whether tasting the wines together possibly did them a disservice. “If we tasted them against straight pinotage, for example, would they perhaps have stood out more or displayed more of that mocha character that we were anticipating?”

Adding perspective were the two older hands on the panel, Landman and McDonald who both remember the birth of the category less than two decades ago. “That first coffee pinotage from Diemersfontein was unmistakeably coffee,” said Greg. “It was bold and pungent – like a smack in the chops!”

They both also recalled the instant clamour for the wine which in turn prompted a backlash from pinotage purists. “Perhaps that’s why that vivid mocha/choc/coffee flavour was not as pronounced as it used to be in years gone by,” mused Fiona, noting that all the examples tasted had been reigned in and dialled down over the past few years.

The points were made that these wines definitely have a place in the pantheon of wine; that consumers really enjoy the approachability of the flavours and the lack of pretence or perceived snob value, the sheer drinkability factor but also the fact that they work well as both red wines and also as pinotages.

“Any number of these I would happily buy and smash alongside a pizza or a braai,” was Clifford’s summation. Both Greg and Guy said the Diemersfontein remains the category leader, even if it’s less bold than it used to be. “It remains a very good red wine, one that can happily even be cellared for a few years or brought out at a dinner party to accompany a hearty, meaty dish,” Greg said.